Walking the Tightrope

I have intended to read Mattia Riccardi's Nietzsche's Philosophical Psychology , ever since it came out in 2021 following a series of posts I made on this very subject in January 2020 (see here , here , and here ).  It is an academic book and the headiness of its approach and the hefty price tag kept me more interested in other things until this year.  My daughter gifted it to me last December.  As I have said before, nothing says “Christmas” quite like a Nietzsche book!  I began reading it shortly before my mother died and only finished it a couple of months ago.  Then I had to digest it for a while.  But, finally, here is my review of this rewarding academic examination. I found myself both intrigued and challenged by Riccardi's interpretation of Nietzsche’s ideas, particularly concerning consciousness, drives, affects, and the nature of the self, all of which I examined in my three previous blog posts.  As someone who has previously written about and studied Nietzsche’s